little robot

If you read our previous blog post, you know about the Export Tables Coda Pack we built to solve a missing feature in Coda: being able to export tables as XLSX/CSV files. Well, we have an update: Coda has also realized that this is an important feature for their product and has developed their own, built-in version of it! You may be thinking as we did initially that this new feature renders our Pack useless. However, in this article, I’ll explain why there are actually different use cases for both options. Spoiler alert: our Pack is still very useful!

There are three main differences between our Pack’s export tool and Coda’s export tool that you’ll want to consider when deciding which to use:

1. Differences in setup
2. Supported file types
3. Devices it will be used on

Differences in setup

Coda’s export tool is built into the right-hand side panel of your doc. To find it, click the “Options” button on a table, then click the 3 dots in the top right corner of the right-hand panel.

To use our Pack’s export tool, you first have to install the Export Tables Pack in your doc, which can be done from the Pack Listing Page or from the right-hand side panel of your doc.

Once you have the Pack installed, you can create a button with our Pack’s "Export" formula in it, as shown below.

Note that the "Export" formula is wrapped in an "OpenWindow" formula. This is explained in the formula documentation.

As you can see, Coda’s export tool doesn’t require any setup, whereas our has a few steps. However, once our Pack’s button is set up, it is easier to use in the future as is right in your doc. So Coda’s export tool is a great option if you only need to export each table a couple of times, whereas our Pack is better if you need to export a table regularly or if multiple users need to be able to do it.

Supported file types

You may have noticed in the screenshot of Coda’s export tool that it only shows a “Download as CSV” option.

That is another key difference between Coda’s export tool and ours. In addition to exporting as CSV, our "Export" formula can also export your tables as XLSX, which is useful if you will be editing the table in Microsoft Excel later. You can easily convert a CSV file to XLSX by opening it in Microsoft Excel and saving it as an XLSX file, but that’s an extra step you may not want to take every time you export your tables. So if you need to export your tables as XLSX, you may want to use our Pack over Coda’s built-in export tool.

Devices it will be used on

The final key difference between our Pack’s export tool and Coda’s export tool is that Coda’s tool only works on a desktop computer (at the time of publishing this post), whereas our tool works on desktop and in Coda’s mobile app.

So if you think you may need to export a table on the fly when you don’t have a laptop with you (for example, to quickly send it to someone in an email attachment), you might want to set up our Pack’s export button in your doc.

As you can see, Coda’s built-in export tool works well in many scenarios and is a great option for users with one-off export needs. And thanks to Coda supporting users like us to build our own Packs, we were able to build our own Export Tables Pack that provides more options and flexibility in exporting tables. We are also currently building a Pro version of our Export Tables Pack which includes even more features, such as exporting to Google Drive and sending tables as email attachments! Find out more about it by visiting our Export Tables Pro launch page!

‍